The document summarizes brand lessons learned from the Great Recession based on an analysis of consumer anxiety and brand responses. It provides 7 recommendations for marketers, including finding your value voice, removing risk from price, tackling anxiety head on, leveraging public sentiment, giving consumers more control, providing real services, and inspiring rather than just empathizing with consumers. Examples are given for each recommendation to illustrate how brands effectively implemented the strategies during the recession.
Job Searching in the UK - even in a recessionGetMeOffTheDole
Are you desperately looking for a great job that pays the bills and leaves you enough money to go on holiday this year? Do you find it impossible to get a job because more of the recession? Have you ended up in the hellish nightmare of justifying why you're out of work every time you sign on not to mention putting up with the odd delays in benefit payments?
Get more information from:
http://www.GetMeOffTheDole.com
Job Searching in the UK - even in a recessionGetMeOffTheDole
Are you desperately looking for a great job that pays the bills and leaves you enough money to go on holiday this year? Do you find it impossible to get a job because more of the recession? Have you ended up in the hellish nightmare of justifying why you're out of work every time you sign on not to mention putting up with the odd delays in benefit payments?
Get more information from:
http://www.GetMeOffTheDole.com
China Outbound — a trend report from The Innovation Group at J. Walter Thompson — explores the fastest-growing group of global travelers and what it means for your brand.
Chinese international travel has tripled in the last 10 years to 130 million trips in 2017, with affluent, increasingly adventurous consumers setting the pace of travel retail, hotels and hospitality.
Traditional molds are changing. Singles, younger generations, and those from smaller cities are traveling, making this cohort a powerful, and moving, target.
Our report unearths the new motivations and aspirations behind Chinese travel and identifies 12 emerging types of Chinese travelers, from medical tourists to women travelers to foodies and adventure seekers. There are also filial travelers, treating their aged parents to an overseas holiday, and geopolitical travelers, who are inspired to visit places along the One Belt, One Road network of trade routes in the region.
Free sample from a new report from J. Walter Thompson’s Innovation Group, which tackles one of today’s most explosive consumer sectors: health. “The Well Economy” comes at a time when the definition of “health” is expanding rapidly—as are the industries that cover it. What does it mean to be well? How are health and wellness brands evolving? And most importantly, how can brands reach consumers in this space?
It’s a new era—welcome to the Control Shift. Exchanging data for utility, people are delegating an increasing amount of control over their lives to technology. Brands can capitalize on this societal change by positioning themselves as trusted partners and fostering consumer empowerment.
Frontier(less) Retail—an Innovation Group report created in partnership with WWD, the leading fashion, beauty and retail authority—reveals a retail landscape that has become borderless, blurred and amorphous.
Consumer expectations are becoming limitless—whether it’s instant delivery, intuitive commerce or compelling store experiences. Interfaces for retail are moving beyond the smartphone into our home environments, and the digital and physical worlds are blurring in new ways.
It’s a new era—welcome to the Control Shift. Exchanging data for utility, people are delegating an increasing amount of control over their lives to technology. Brands can capitalize on this societal change by positioning themselves as trusted partners and fostering consumer empowerment.
In January 2016, a team of J. Walter Thompson Company researchers spent 10 days in Cuba interviewing more than 40 Cubans about their lives, the economy, and opportunities as relations with the United States improve. The result is The Promise of Cuba. Here we offer a free excerpt of the full 78-page report.
Once dominated by a largely young consumer base, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is at a demographic tipping point. This executive summary version of Generation BOLD, an Innovation Group MENA report, looks at over-50s in the region, who are reinventing cultural preconceptions about aging and retirement.
A geração Z brasileira – a que sucedeu os millennials e hoje tem entre 12 e 19 anos de idade – cresceu dentro do período mais próspero da história brasileira. Isso diferencia bastante seus integrantes em comparação aos da mesma geração nos Estados Unidos e no Reino Unido, que até agora têm vivido a maior parte de suas vidas dentro de uma economia prejudicada. Graças à internet e à globalização, a cultura teen global está mais homogênea hoje do que jamais já esteve – mas a geração Z brasileira, no entanto, tem uma perspectiva única.
Brazil’s generation Z has been shaped by the country's spectacular economic rise in recent years, as well as its persistent social inequality. The latest report from the Innovation Group at J. Walter Thompson Intelligence covers emerging trends across technology, media, retail, beauty and more for this generation that represents more than $35 billion in annual spending power and almost 17% of the population in Brazil, one of the world’s most important emerging markets. For the full report, visit www.jwtintelligence.com
Natural is back—As anxious consumers reject an industrial system that appears increasingly toxic and damaging to health, they are turning toward natural products as a solution. Raised on digital culture, they no longer see nature and technology as mutually exclusive, and are combining the best aspects of both to build New Natural lifestyles.
This year's Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity touched on a range of buzzworthy topics, from artificial intelligence to new media to gender equality. Here's our roundup of key takeaways and analysis from the event.
Meet generation Z, the 12- to 19-year-old cohort, who care deeply about ethical consumption, are the most progressive generation to date, use digital technology more than any previous group, and are set to change the world with their optimism and ambition.
This is an executive summary of the report. To purchase the full 79-page report, visit www.jwtintelligence.com.
This report outlines 10 of the most compelling macro trends identified today—trends whose impact will be felt in 2015 and beyond as they continue to unfold, the ones shaping societal mood, behaviors and attitudes. This report explores where these trends stand now and where they’re headed, with insights gleaned from a J. Walter Thompson MEA survey of consumers across six key regional markets and a spectrum of industry experts and innovators.
This year’s SXSW Interactive was bigger than ever, with over 33,000 attendees and hundreds of panels and events. Our latest report explores key themes from the ballooning festival, from innovations in sustainability to the new frontier of artificial intelligence and virtual immortality. The report features on-the-ground insights, brand examples and interviews with experts from tech and academia.
Womenomic Luxury, Cognitive Technology, New Wave Boomer Beauty—just a few items from our Future 100 list of what’s next in the year ahead.
It’s a wide-ranging compilation that reflects developments surfacing across sectors including technology, retail, food and beverage, travel, sustainability and luxury. The list also includes new types of goods or businesses, new behaviors and ideas with the potential to ladder up to bigger trends.
The payments and currency systems are on the verge of disruption. Payments are getting digitized and going mobile, wearable and biometric, while the rise of cryptocurrencies is prompting new ideas about what currency can be. Millennials, not wedded to the status quo when it comes to money, will drive this shift. This report takes a look at the myriad new ways to pay and how the concept of currency is evolving to encompass everything from bitcoin to social media shares. We also spotlight how disruption is opening the way for new players to act as middlemen between consumers and their money, along with results of a survey exploring U.S. and U.K. consumer attitudes toward payments and currency.
Note: This is an abridged version of the 62-page report. Go to JWTIntelligence.com/trendletters to download the full report at no cost.
The notion of family is rapidly evolving, but many brands aren’t yet portraying the new reality of today’s families or fully speaking to their needs. Marriage is no longer a given in many parts of the world, nor are children; at the same time, gay couples are embracing these milestones as attitudes and laws change. Meanwhile, as people live longer, more are forming new families in later decades, and households are expanding to include multiple generations. On the other end of the spectrum, more people are living in households of one, forming families out of friends or even treating pets as family. This report spotlights what’s driving these trends, supporting data and examples of how marketers are responding.
Among some of the world’s top corporate leaders, there’s a growing understanding that traditional business models—built on the presumption of unlimited and cheap natural resources—must be reworked for 21st century realities. The circular economy represents a markedly different way of doing business, replacing established practices like planned obsolescence with new approaches to generating profits. This report examines how brands from Puma and Ford to Ikea and Starbucks are becoming more circular, why this concept is gaining more adherents now and implications for brands. The circular economy is an important topic not only because the approach is far better for the planet but also because tapping into its principles may well be essential to long-term competitiveness.
This is an abridged version of the 124-page report. Go to JWTIntelligence.com/trendletters to see the full report, including recommendations for brands
JWT’s third annual report on trends in the mobile sphere spotlights key themes that came out of this year’s Mobile World Congress, Consumer Electronics Show and South by Southwest Interactive, and builds on trends spotlighted in previous reports. The report covers significant drivers and manifestations of these developments, and their implications for brands. “10 Mobile Trends for 2014 and Beyond” is based around on-the-ground research at the MWC in Barcelona and SXSW in Austin, as well as desk research and insights gleaned from interviews with several mobile experts and influencers.
GraphRAG is All You need? LLM & Knowledge GraphGuy Korland
Guy Korland, CEO and Co-founder of FalkorDB, will review two articles on the integration of language models with knowledge graphs.
1. Unifying Large Language Models and Knowledge Graphs: A Roadmap.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.08302
2. Microsoft Research's GraphRAG paper and a review paper on various uses of knowledge graphs:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/graphrag-unlocking-llm-discovery-on-narrative-private-data/
China Outbound — a trend report from The Innovation Group at J. Walter Thompson — explores the fastest-growing group of global travelers and what it means for your brand.
Chinese international travel has tripled in the last 10 years to 130 million trips in 2017, with affluent, increasingly adventurous consumers setting the pace of travel retail, hotels and hospitality.
Traditional molds are changing. Singles, younger generations, and those from smaller cities are traveling, making this cohort a powerful, and moving, target.
Our report unearths the new motivations and aspirations behind Chinese travel and identifies 12 emerging types of Chinese travelers, from medical tourists to women travelers to foodies and adventure seekers. There are also filial travelers, treating their aged parents to an overseas holiday, and geopolitical travelers, who are inspired to visit places along the One Belt, One Road network of trade routes in the region.
Free sample from a new report from J. Walter Thompson’s Innovation Group, which tackles one of today’s most explosive consumer sectors: health. “The Well Economy” comes at a time when the definition of “health” is expanding rapidly—as are the industries that cover it. What does it mean to be well? How are health and wellness brands evolving? And most importantly, how can brands reach consumers in this space?
It’s a new era—welcome to the Control Shift. Exchanging data for utility, people are delegating an increasing amount of control over their lives to technology. Brands can capitalize on this societal change by positioning themselves as trusted partners and fostering consumer empowerment.
Frontier(less) Retail—an Innovation Group report created in partnership with WWD, the leading fashion, beauty and retail authority—reveals a retail landscape that has become borderless, blurred and amorphous.
Consumer expectations are becoming limitless—whether it’s instant delivery, intuitive commerce or compelling store experiences. Interfaces for retail are moving beyond the smartphone into our home environments, and the digital and physical worlds are blurring in new ways.
It’s a new era—welcome to the Control Shift. Exchanging data for utility, people are delegating an increasing amount of control over their lives to technology. Brands can capitalize on this societal change by positioning themselves as trusted partners and fostering consumer empowerment.
In January 2016, a team of J. Walter Thompson Company researchers spent 10 days in Cuba interviewing more than 40 Cubans about their lives, the economy, and opportunities as relations with the United States improve. The result is The Promise of Cuba. Here we offer a free excerpt of the full 78-page report.
Once dominated by a largely young consumer base, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is at a demographic tipping point. This executive summary version of Generation BOLD, an Innovation Group MENA report, looks at over-50s in the region, who are reinventing cultural preconceptions about aging and retirement.
A geração Z brasileira – a que sucedeu os millennials e hoje tem entre 12 e 19 anos de idade – cresceu dentro do período mais próspero da história brasileira. Isso diferencia bastante seus integrantes em comparação aos da mesma geração nos Estados Unidos e no Reino Unido, que até agora têm vivido a maior parte de suas vidas dentro de uma economia prejudicada. Graças à internet e à globalização, a cultura teen global está mais homogênea hoje do que jamais já esteve – mas a geração Z brasileira, no entanto, tem uma perspectiva única.
Brazil’s generation Z has been shaped by the country's spectacular economic rise in recent years, as well as its persistent social inequality. The latest report from the Innovation Group at J. Walter Thompson Intelligence covers emerging trends across technology, media, retail, beauty and more for this generation that represents more than $35 billion in annual spending power and almost 17% of the population in Brazil, one of the world’s most important emerging markets. For the full report, visit www.jwtintelligence.com
Natural is back—As anxious consumers reject an industrial system that appears increasingly toxic and damaging to health, they are turning toward natural products as a solution. Raised on digital culture, they no longer see nature and technology as mutually exclusive, and are combining the best aspects of both to build New Natural lifestyles.
This year's Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity touched on a range of buzzworthy topics, from artificial intelligence to new media to gender equality. Here's our roundup of key takeaways and analysis from the event.
Meet generation Z, the 12- to 19-year-old cohort, who care deeply about ethical consumption, are the most progressive generation to date, use digital technology more than any previous group, and are set to change the world with their optimism and ambition.
This is an executive summary of the report. To purchase the full 79-page report, visit www.jwtintelligence.com.
This report outlines 10 of the most compelling macro trends identified today—trends whose impact will be felt in 2015 and beyond as they continue to unfold, the ones shaping societal mood, behaviors and attitudes. This report explores where these trends stand now and where they’re headed, with insights gleaned from a J. Walter Thompson MEA survey of consumers across six key regional markets and a spectrum of industry experts and innovators.
This year’s SXSW Interactive was bigger than ever, with over 33,000 attendees and hundreds of panels and events. Our latest report explores key themes from the ballooning festival, from innovations in sustainability to the new frontier of artificial intelligence and virtual immortality. The report features on-the-ground insights, brand examples and interviews with experts from tech and academia.
Womenomic Luxury, Cognitive Technology, New Wave Boomer Beauty—just a few items from our Future 100 list of what’s next in the year ahead.
It’s a wide-ranging compilation that reflects developments surfacing across sectors including technology, retail, food and beverage, travel, sustainability and luxury. The list also includes new types of goods or businesses, new behaviors and ideas with the potential to ladder up to bigger trends.
The payments and currency systems are on the verge of disruption. Payments are getting digitized and going mobile, wearable and biometric, while the rise of cryptocurrencies is prompting new ideas about what currency can be. Millennials, not wedded to the status quo when it comes to money, will drive this shift. This report takes a look at the myriad new ways to pay and how the concept of currency is evolving to encompass everything from bitcoin to social media shares. We also spotlight how disruption is opening the way for new players to act as middlemen between consumers and their money, along with results of a survey exploring U.S. and U.K. consumer attitudes toward payments and currency.
Note: This is an abridged version of the 62-page report. Go to JWTIntelligence.com/trendletters to download the full report at no cost.
The notion of family is rapidly evolving, but many brands aren’t yet portraying the new reality of today’s families or fully speaking to their needs. Marriage is no longer a given in many parts of the world, nor are children; at the same time, gay couples are embracing these milestones as attitudes and laws change. Meanwhile, as people live longer, more are forming new families in later decades, and households are expanding to include multiple generations. On the other end of the spectrum, more people are living in households of one, forming families out of friends or even treating pets as family. This report spotlights what’s driving these trends, supporting data and examples of how marketers are responding.
Among some of the world’s top corporate leaders, there’s a growing understanding that traditional business models—built on the presumption of unlimited and cheap natural resources—must be reworked for 21st century realities. The circular economy represents a markedly different way of doing business, replacing established practices like planned obsolescence with new approaches to generating profits. This report examines how brands from Puma and Ford to Ikea and Starbucks are becoming more circular, why this concept is gaining more adherents now and implications for brands. The circular economy is an important topic not only because the approach is far better for the planet but also because tapping into its principles may well be essential to long-term competitiveness.
This is an abridged version of the 124-page report. Go to JWTIntelligence.com/trendletters to see the full report, including recommendations for brands
JWT’s third annual report on trends in the mobile sphere spotlights key themes that came out of this year’s Mobile World Congress, Consumer Electronics Show and South by Southwest Interactive, and builds on trends spotlighted in previous reports. The report covers significant drivers and manifestations of these developments, and their implications for brands. “10 Mobile Trends for 2014 and Beyond” is based around on-the-ground research at the MWC in Barcelona and SXSW in Austin, as well as desk research and insights gleaned from interviews with several mobile experts and influencers.
GraphRAG is All You need? LLM & Knowledge GraphGuy Korland
Guy Korland, CEO and Co-founder of FalkorDB, will review two articles on the integration of language models with knowledge graphs.
1. Unifying Large Language Models and Knowledge Graphs: A Roadmap.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.08302
2. Microsoft Research's GraphRAG paper and a review paper on various uses of knowledge graphs:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/graphrag-unlocking-llm-discovery-on-narrative-private-data/
Smart TV Buyer Insights Survey 2024 by 91mobiles.pdf91mobiles
91mobiles recently conducted a Smart TV Buyer Insights Survey in which we asked over 3,000 respondents about the TV they own, aspects they look at on a new TV, and their TV buying preferences.
Epistemic Interaction - tuning interfaces to provide information for AI supportAlan Dix
Paper presented at SYNERGY workshop at AVI 2024, Genoa, Italy. 3rd June 2024
https://alandix.com/academic/papers/synergy2024-epistemic/
As machine learning integrates deeper into human-computer interactions, the concept of epistemic interaction emerges, aiming to refine these interactions to enhance system adaptability. This approach encourages minor, intentional adjustments in user behaviour to enrich the data available for system learning. This paper introduces epistemic interaction within the context of human-system communication, illustrating how deliberate interaction design can improve system understanding and adaptation. Through concrete examples, we demonstrate the potential of epistemic interaction to significantly advance human-computer interaction by leveraging intuitive human communication strategies to inform system design and functionality, offering a novel pathway for enriching user-system engagements.
Connector Corner: Automate dynamic content and events by pushing a buttonDianaGray10
Here is something new! In our next Connector Corner webinar, we will demonstrate how you can use a single workflow to:
Create a campaign using Mailchimp with merge tags/fields
Send an interactive Slack channel message (using buttons)
Have the message received by managers and peers along with a test email for review
But there’s more:
In a second workflow supporting the same use case, you’ll see:
Your campaign sent to target colleagues for approval
If the “Approve” button is clicked, a Jira/Zendesk ticket is created for the marketing design team
But—if the “Reject” button is pushed, colleagues will be alerted via Slack message
Join us to learn more about this new, human-in-the-loop capability, brought to you by Integration Service connectors.
And...
Speakers:
Akshay Agnihotri, Product Manager
Charlie Greenberg, Host
Builder.ai Founder Sachin Dev Duggal's Strategic Approach to Create an Innova...Ramesh Iyer
In today's fast-changing business world, Companies that adapt and embrace new ideas often need help to keep up with the competition. However, fostering a culture of innovation takes much work. It takes vision, leadership and willingness to take risks in the right proportion. Sachin Dev Duggal, co-founder of Builder.ai, has perfected the art of this balance, creating a company culture where creativity and growth are nurtured at each stage.
Software Delivery At the Speed of AI: Inflectra Invests In AI-Powered QualityInflectra
In this insightful webinar, Inflectra explores how artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming software development and testing. Discover how AI-powered tools are revolutionizing every stage of the software development lifecycle (SDLC), from design and prototyping to testing, deployment, and monitoring.
Learn about:
• The Future of Testing: How AI is shifting testing towards verification, analysis, and higher-level skills, while reducing repetitive tasks.
• Test Automation: How AI-powered test case generation, optimization, and self-healing tests are making testing more efficient and effective.
• Visual Testing: Explore the emerging capabilities of AI in visual testing and how it's set to revolutionize UI verification.
• Inflectra's AI Solutions: See demonstrations of Inflectra's cutting-edge AI tools like the ChatGPT plugin and Azure Open AI platform, designed to streamline your testing process.
Whether you're a developer, tester, or QA professional, this webinar will give you valuable insights into how AI is shaping the future of software delivery.
Generating a custom Ruby SDK for your web service or Rails API using Smithyg2nightmarescribd
Have you ever wanted a Ruby client API to communicate with your web service? Smithy is a protocol-agnostic language for defining services and SDKs. Smithy Ruby is an implementation of Smithy that generates a Ruby SDK using a Smithy model. In this talk, we will explore Smithy and Smithy Ruby to learn how to generate custom feature-rich SDKs that can communicate with any web service, such as a Rails JSON API.
Dev Dives: Train smarter, not harder – active learning and UiPath LLMs for do...UiPathCommunity
💥 Speed, accuracy, and scaling – discover the superpowers of GenAI in action with UiPath Document Understanding and Communications Mining™:
See how to accelerate model training and optimize model performance with active learning
Learn about the latest enhancements to out-of-the-box document processing – with little to no training required
Get an exclusive demo of the new family of UiPath LLMs – GenAI models specialized for processing different types of documents and messages
This is a hands-on session specifically designed for automation developers and AI enthusiasts seeking to enhance their knowledge in leveraging the latest intelligent document processing capabilities offered by UiPath.
Speakers:
👨🏫 Andras Palfi, Senior Product Manager, UiPath
👩🏫 Lenka Dulovicova, Product Program Manager, UiPath
JMeter webinar - integration with InfluxDB and GrafanaRTTS
Watch this recorded webinar about real-time monitoring of application performance. See how to integrate Apache JMeter, the open-source leader in performance testing, with InfluxDB, the open-source time-series database, and Grafana, the open-source analytics and visualization application.
In this webinar, we will review the benefits of leveraging InfluxDB and Grafana when executing load tests and demonstrate how these tools are used to visualize performance metrics.
Length: 30 minutes
Session Overview
-------------------------------------------
During this webinar, we will cover the following topics while demonstrating the integrations of JMeter, InfluxDB and Grafana:
- What out-of-the-box solutions are available for real-time monitoring JMeter tests?
- What are the benefits of integrating InfluxDB and Grafana into the load testing stack?
- Which features are provided by Grafana?
- Demonstration of InfluxDB and Grafana using a practice web application
To view the webinar recording, go to:
https://www.rttsweb.com/jmeter-integration-webinar
Key Trends Shaping the Future of Infrastructure.pdfCheryl Hung
Keynote at DIGIT West Expo, Glasgow on 29 May 2024.
Cheryl Hung, ochery.com
Sr Director, Infrastructure Ecosystem, Arm.
The key trends across hardware, cloud and open-source; exploring how these areas are likely to mature and develop over the short and long-term, and then considering how organisations can position themselves to adapt and thrive.
4. THE JWT
ANXIETYINDEX
Launched in February 2003 during the run-
up to the war in Iraq, the proprietary JWT
AnxietyIndex tracks the levels and intensity
of consumer anxiety and, importantly, the
drivers of it.
This quantitative tool examines safety and
security concerns—the threat of terrorism,
potential and current military hostilities,
crime, etc.—and economic worries such as
the cost of health care, the cost of living
and job security.
It also unearths discoveries that can help
inform business and marketing strategies.
4
5. ANXIETYINDEX
OVER THE YEARS
2003 2004 2007 2008 2009 2010
“Understanding the “The Recession and Its
Impact on Youth” “AnxietyIndex: Argentina”
“War/Advertising” “Health Concerns” “The Confidence Crisis” Food Crisis” Jan.
Wave 1 U.S. – Feb. Wave 7 U.S. – Feb. Wave 9 U.S. – Aug. Wave 10 U.S., U.K. – May Wave 16 U.S., U.K.,
CA., AU., BR. – Feb.
“Understanding the “AnxietyIndex: Mexico”
“War/Advertising” “Airlines” Fuel Crisis” “Cadbury Gum Study” Jan.
Wave 2 U.S. – Mar. Wave 8 U.S. – Aug. Wave 11 U.S., U.K. – Aug RU., ES. – March
“The Recession and Its “AnxietyIndex: Columbia”
“Health Care” “Weathering the Storm: Impact on the Environment” Jan.
Wave 3 U.S. – April The Financial Crisis” Wave 17 U.S., U.K., CA., AU., JP. – April
Wave 12 U.S. – Sept. “AnxietyIndex Quarterly:
“Financial” “Balancing Health, The Recession Handbook: Brand Lessons
Wave 4 U.S. – May
“Pre-Election Client Omnibus Wellness and Budgets” From the Great Recession of 2009 –
(J&J–OTC, TRP, DTC)” Wave 18 U.S., U.K., CA., AU. – April Winter 2009”
“Obesity” Wave 13 U.S. – Oct. “AnxietyIndex: India” March 2010
Wave 5 U.S. – Aug. “Post-Election Client Omnibus Apr. – May
(Royal Caribbean, Macy’s, Feld, “AnxietyIndex: China”
“Obesity II” K-C, J&J-Oral Care)” Apr. – May
Wave 6 U.S. – Nov. Wave 14 U.S., U.K., CA. – Nov. “AnxietyIndex Quarterly:
“Holiday Season 2008” The Genericizing of
Wave 15 U.S., U.K., CA. – Dec. Brands – Spring 2009”
May
“T. Rowe Price Financial” “The Recession and Its
U.S. – Dec. Impact on Marketing”
Wave 19 U.S., U.K., CA., AU., RU. – Aug.
“AnxietyIndex Quarterly:
What Hope-Fueled Markets can Teach Brands –
Summer 2009”
Aug.
“AnxietyIndex: A Cross-Market Look”
Wave 20 U.S., U.K.,CA., FR., ES., BR., IN., CN., JP. – Oct.
“AnxietyIndex: Saudi Arabia”
Oct.
“AnxietyIndex: United Arab Emirates”
Oct. – Nov.
“AnxietyIndex Quarterly:
The Best Brand Responses to the Recession –
Fall 2009”
Nov.
5
6. ANXIETYINDEX.COM:
BRAND ANSWERS FOR
AN ANXIOUS WORLD
In February 2009, JWT launched a
qualitative complement to the
AnxietyIndex: JWT’s AnxietyIndex.com is
an interactive site intended to help brands
navigate consumer anxiety.
With daily content updates, the site is a
place to discover and discuss how brands
and consumers around the world are
responding to and coping with anxiety.
Here, people can also download major
AnxietyIndex research and recession-
related trend reports published by us since
Fall 2008.
6
9. WHY
ANXIETY?
a painful response to feeling
Anxiety is, quite literally,
powerless against uncontrollable forces. In response,
humans seek comfort, consistency and control. The 3Cs apply to work,
relationships, habits and even spending. Familiar products give some
the brands
measure of comfort and consistency in an anxious world. And
that people choose to use, or not use, also provide
some sense of control during anxious times; sometimes
consumers look for new choices to assist them in maintaining control, or at
least fostering an illusion of control.
—JOHN C. NORCROSS, Ph.D., ABPP, clinical psychologist and
professor of psychology, University of Scranton
9
11. THE
RECESSION
HANDBOOK
Over the past year, our AnxietyIndex.com site has tracked nearly 470 brand
responses to consumers’ recession-related anxiety in 27 markets. At the same
time, our seven-year-old proprietary AnxietyIndex has quantitatively
measured the levels and drivers of consumer anxiety in 16 markets.
In so doing, we have built a database of knowledge from around the world on
consumer behavior and brand strategy in the Great Recession. As we begin to
enter a recovery, we’ve reviewed this database, summarizing what we’ve
learned and making recommendations for marketers that we believe will
stand the test of time.
In our fourth AnxietyIndex Quarterly, we highlighted key brand lessons from
the Great Recession (accompanied by examples), which we believe will hold
up in recessions to come.
11
13. 1. FIND YOUR
VALUE VOICE
Understanding how your brand should speak about price and value is critical.
Brands that simply tout price sound like everyone else; rather, talk about
price by exploiting your unique voice.
13
14. 1. FIND YOUR
VALUE VOICE
Target: Target’s “Brand new day” TV
commercials, which showed cool-
looking people actually enjoying
various recession-era lifestyle
compromises (e.g., “the new vacation
glow: self-tanner, $9.39,” “the new
nightclub: Wii dance game, $69.99”),
were right in line with the brand’s
established “cheap chic,” “more-for-
less” sensibility while touting specific
prices for the first time.
14 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOvv2VKFuMY&feature=player_embedded
15. 1. FIND YOUR
VALUE VOICE
Sainsbury: The U.K. supermarket
chain’s “Try something new today”
campaign has featured TV chef Jamie
Oliver encouraging shoppers to
experiment with ingredients by
demonstrating simple recipes. In 2008,
Oliver started showing shoppers how to
“feed your family for a fiver” in ads
that reflected the times while
remaining true to the brand’s core
value of encouraging experimentation.
15 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqmnlHlxqD80
16. 2. REMOVE THE RISK
FROM PRICE
With anxiety levels high and the future uncertain, people are reluctant to
spend—even if they haven’t been directly impacted by the recession. This is
especially true of bigger-ticket items or longer-term financial commitments.
While your product or service may be the same price as it was before the
recession, you can sell some peace of mind by taking risk out of the equation.
16
17. 2. REMOVE THE RISK
FROM PRICE
Hyundai Motor America: The car maker
originated the movement to provide
certainty in uncertain times with its
Assurance Plan, promising buyers “if you
lose your income in the next year, we’ll let
you return your car.” Various marketers
borrowed the concept, from JetBlue
(“While we can’t predict the future, we
can take some of the uncertainty out of it
and give you confidence to book with
JetBlue”) to Telefonica in Spain (which
offered to cut phone bills by half for
people who lost jobs). Chrysler went a step
further and instituted a 60-day satisfaction
guarantee program.
17 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3bW4C2Jg68&feature=player_embedded
18. 2. REMOVE THE RISK
FROM PRICE
An array of programs motivated consumers
to spend by guaranteeing the best deal. In
the online-travel category, Orbitz launched
both a “Price Assurance” program (if another
customer books the same flight/hotel for
less, Orbitz refunds you the difference) and
a Low Price Guarantee (find a lower online
fare for the same booking and Orbitz refunds
the difference and gives you a $50 coupon);
competitor sites followed suit. Gap is testing
a program in which shoppers register for a
Sprize card, which they show whenever they
buy an item; if the price drops within 45
days, the difference is credited to the card.
18 http://www.orbitz.com
19. 3. DON’T SHY AWAY FROM
TACKLING ANXIETY HEAD ON
While marketers must take care not to fuel consumers’ fears, they can
acknowledge anxieties and position themselves as part of the solution—
explaining how the brand is working to either address the relevant issue or
help consumers cope with it.
19
20. 3. DON’T SHY AWAY FROM
TACKLING ANXIETY HEAD ON
Woolworths: As the downturn took
hold in Australia, Woolworths Ltd.
announced that new store openings
and growth in existing locations would
create 7,000 jobs. A commercial
showed a mother going to a job
interview with her son, with the
message that “We employ thousands of
Australians. And we’re always looking
for more.” Without mentioning the “R”
word explicitly, the spot sounded just
the right tone of pragmatic optimism.
20 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwKMrLXDG9M&feature=player_embedded
21. 3. DON’T SHY AWAY FROM
TACKLING ANXIETY HEAD ON
Hyundai: In January 2010, Hyundai
tackled Americans’ concern that
unemployment remained high even
while a recovery was said to be under
way. A TV commercial told viewers:
“The dust has started to settle. And
some indicators are up—especially for
the big guys. But the real question is,
how are you doing?” Hyundai then
announced it was continuing its
Assurance Plan—“because the economy
hasn’t really turned around for any of
us until it turns around for all of us.”
21 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMhPNW1W8OE&feature=player_embedded
22. 4. LEVERAGE
PUBLIC SENTIMENT
A timely campaign that taps into the Zeitgeist can go a long way toward
helping a brand connect with consumers—as long as it is genuinely aligned
with the brand.
22
23. 4. LEVERAGE
PUBLIC SENTIMENT
JetBlue: Not only did JetBlue’s “Bigwigs”
campaign fit with the airline’s distinctly un-
stuffy, anti-stodgy brand, it was relevant and
timely, and undoubtedly struck a chord with
bailout-weary American taxpayers. JetBlue
poked fun at C-suite execs just as they were
getting chastised for their excesses—private
jets included—amid bailout mania. It subtly
communicated “more for less” by telling
“Bigwigs, Muckety-Mucks, Private Jetters and
Big Cheeses” how “jetting on JetBlue is a lot
like on your private jet, with a few basic
differences.” JetBlue’s Web site described
features such as lots of leg room, free snacks
and “fares that won’t give the CFO a
conniption.”
23 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmDiDJ7QrdU&feature=player_embedded
24. 4. LEVERAGE
PUBLIC SENTIMENT
Miller High Life: A brand that has long
cultivated a blue collar image, Miller High
Life leveraged the populist zeal stirred up by
the recession by “giving” its Super Bowl ad
time to “deserving small businesses from
around the country.” Four Miller High Life
spots that ran in regional markets each
highlighted one business (Loretta’s Authentic
Pralines in New Orleans, etc.). Echoing
JetBlue’s “Bigwigs” campaign, a teaser ad
positioned this Super Bowl advertiser as
standing apart from “those big muckety-
muck companies [that] prance out those
fancy-pants commercials.”
24 http://epkzone.com/millerhighlife/
25. 5. GIVE CONSUMERS
MORE CONTROL
This is the moment for brands to provide consumers with choices (in how they
pay, how much they pay, when they pay, etc.), making them feel they have
some control.
25
26. 5. GIVE CONSUMERS
MORE CONTROL
Casas Bahia: Brazil’s largest retailer and
advertiser built its empire on a business
model that provides credit to low-end
consumers, who have been able to acquire
fridges, stoves, furniture, etc., through
monthly installments. Casas Bahia makes
clear that it is open to negotiating the
payment plan and doing all it can to ensure
that installments fit the household budget.
In one campaign, Casas Bahia actually asked,
“How much are you willing to pay?” in an
attempt to provide the comfort that comes
from being able to choose a payment plan.
26 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oW2SSdfwGp8&feature=player_embedded
27. 5. GIVE CONSUMERS
MORE CONTROL
“Pay what you want”: Originally an offbeat
strategy that Radiohead used to market its
album In Rainbows, marketers are adopting
“pay what you want” to attract buzz and
engender goodwill by making consumers feel
empowered. For example, Singapore’s new
Ibis hotel allowed guests to name their price
for a room during a brief window each day
via the site paywhatyouwant.com.sg. And
Little Bay in London was among a handful of
restaurants to test the idea, running a
month-long “pay what you think it’s worth”
promotion.
27 http://www.littlebay.co.uk/london.html
28. 6. PROVIDE A REAL SERVICE
FOR CONSUMERS
Give consumers tools to help them cope (by saving money, becoming more
informed, etc.) or achieve goals. This positions the brand as an ally of
consumers, supportive and dependable.
28
29. 6. PROVIDE A REAL SERVICE
FOR CONSUMERS
BOB: At a time when few Austrians were
optimistic about the future, the young
mobile provider BOB launched bobtivist.at—
the name a combo of “optimist” and “bob”—
where people can share tips on how to enjoy
life and save money in Vienna. The site is
both pragmatic (with its cost-cutting ideas)
and inspirational (reminding consumers of
the bright side of things).
29 http://www.bobtivist.at/
30. 6. PROVIDE A REAL SERVICE
FOR CONSUMERS
American Express: The OPEN small-business
platform offers the OPEN Forum, an online
resource and social networking site for small
businesses that features a virtual Rolodex of
credentialed businesses, marketing toolkits
and an idea hub, among other things.
30 https://www.openforum.com/?&SSOCK=1
31. 7. INSPIRE RATHER THAN
EMPATHIZE WITH CONSUMERS
Rather than reflect the more fearful side of consumers—treating them as
downtrodden, penny-pinching and anxious—see them as hope-fueled and talk
to them accordingly. Don’t feed resentment; feed ambition and optimism—
focus on how these consumers are better off than their predecessors. Be
more inspirational and aspirational.
31
32. 7. INSPIRE RATHER THAN
EMPATHIZE WITH CONSUMERS
India’s Economic Times: A “Power of Ideas”
contest sponsored by the leading business
daily created a platform to encourage
entrepreneurship, providing both inspiration
and advice for business development in a
recession. People could submit ideas, as well
as receive mentoring and the chance for
funding. A hope-fueled market where
entrepreneurship has been riding high, India
has been determined to turn the recession
into opportunity. Many headlines reveal this
sentiment—e.g., from The Economic Times:
“Just one big idea can lay off the
slowdown.”
32 http://www.ideas.economictimes.com/
33. 7. INSPIRE RATHER THAN
EMPATHIZE WITH CONSUMERS
Coca-Cola: In an ad celebrating Chinese New
Year, Coca-Cola smartly leveraged one man’s
loss of hope to encourage the whole nation. The
spot featured Chinese track hero Liu Xiang, an
Olympic champion who had to abruptly
withdraw from the 2008 Summer Games due to
an injury. Amid a celebratory Chinese New Year
setting, we see that Liu hasn’t gotten past the
bitter memory of the Olympics. His father
comes into his room and passes him a bottle of
Coke. “Do you know how many hurdles you have
leaped over in the past?” he asks. Silence from
Liu.“100,006 hurdles,” his father continues.
“This is just another hurdle in your life.” The
spot ends with a revived Liu knocking at his
father’s door and handing him a Coke.
33 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMkcUUsdw9o&feature=player_embedded
34. 8. RETURN TO THE CORE
VALUE OF HOPE
Messages that restore hope could help make brands aspirational again.
34
35. 8. RETURN TO THE CORE
VALUE OF HOPE
Havaianas: The Brazilian flip-flop maker
found hope in adversity: A commercial
showed an earnest woman interrupting a
“roda de samba” (an informal gathering of
people playing samba songs). She complains:
“How can you possibly be laughing and
having fun while there is a crisis going on in
the world?” The stunned crowd falls silent
until someone lets out: “Talk about
sadness!” Someone else breaks into a
popular samba song that goes “Sadness,
please go away!” The crowd follows happily
along.
35 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPEyrCvNXFs&feature=player_embedded
36. 8. RETURN TO THE CORE
VALUE OF HOPE
Portuguese Red Cross: As consumers
tightened their wallets in late 2008, the
Portuguese Red Cross decided to sell hope in
a literal way. It opened a store in a Lisbon
mall where cards promoting “hope” were
clipped onto hangers and stocked on shelves,
just as normal goods would be; they sold for
10 euros apiece. “Hope” was positioned as a
gift alternative for the holidays, and
shoppers could get the satisfaction that
comes with both a mall transaction and the
act of giving. Where its messaging could
have played on guilt, the Red Cross spoke in
a voice of optimism.
36 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZA5KPT7iVoI&feature=player_embedded
37. 9. RE-IMAGINE HOW YOUR
PRODUCTS ARE SOLD
By tweaking your sales model, you can make products more accessible to
consumers hesitant to spend.
37
38. 9. RE-IMAGINE HOW YOUR
PRODUCTS ARE SOLD
Best Buy: The recession saw many
consumers postpone big-ticket purchases, a
challenge that electronics chain Best Buy
addressed with its novel Pitch In card. Think
bridal registry meets microfinancing meets
layaway; Best Buy terms it “easy group
gifting.” Customers looking for help
financing a purchase create a Pitch In card
along with a Best Buy wish list, which they
share with friends and family. Gift-givers
then contribute payments ranging from $5 to
$9,999.99.
38 https://www-ssl.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=pcat17226&type=page
39. 9. RE-IMAGINE HOW YOUR
PRODUCTS ARE SOLD
Levi’s: An aspirational brand in India, Levi’s
aimed to become more accessible and
broaden its user base without discounting or
weakening its premium positioning; it also
wanted to increase frequency and value of
purchase among existing customers. So Levi’s
brought in new category thinking, partnering
with one of India’s major banks (HDFC) to
offer an EMI (equal monthly installment)
scheme. The communication championed a
“Live Now” philosophy.
39
40. 10. USE THE RECESSION TO
ACHIEVE A HIGHER GOAL
Thing big: You can stimulate consumer spending or confidence at the same
time as helping the environment, for instance, or encouraging
entrepreneurship, volunteering or family time.
40
41. 10. USE THE RECESSION TO
ACHIEVE A HIGHER GOAL
India’s Economic Times: See No. 7 for
details. This entrepreneurship contest was a
way for the newspaper to do something
meaningful for consumers while burnishing
its brand.
41 http://www.ideas.economictimes.com/
42. 10. USE THE RECESSION TO
ACHIEVE A HIGHER GOAL
Cash for Clunkers: Germany was the first
with a “Cash for Clunkers” campaign that
aimed to get citizens to buy domestically
made cars, help the environment and
stimulate the economy. The U.S.
government’s subsequent “Cash for
Clunkers” program encouraged Americans to
trade in their gas-guzzling clunkers for
thousands of dollars off the price of a new,
better-for-the-environment vehicle. Both
programs helped boost consumer spending.
Some retailers copied the idea, offering
discounts to customers who brought in used
goods that could be donated to charity.
42 Infrogmation/creativecommons.org
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